Landscape ecology is an interdisciplinary field that investigates landscape units, spatial patterns, and ecological processes. It can be used to improve landscape protection, management, planning, design, and sustainability at many different scales. The development of landscape ecology in China mainland began 35 years ago in1981 when the subject was introduced into China mainland for the first time. The International Association of Landscape Ecology in China (IALE China) was established in 1995. This study describes the development and status of landscape ecology research in China mainland by analyzing the articles published in the CNKI and Web of Science databases between1981 and 2015. The key term used for the literature search was landscape ecology, and both Chinese and English articles written by scientists in China mainland were included. The analysis of the detailed information was based on the number of related articles, journal names, research institutes, articles content, and international influence. The research results were as follows: (1) The development of landscape ecology in China mainland could be divided into three stages according to the number of related articles per year. Between 1981 and 1989, there was little research on landscape ecology in China mainland and the discipline was in its introduction and early development phase. Between 1990 and 2006, the number of related articles per year increased rapidly and landscape ecology in China mainland developed rapidly. Since 2007, landscape ecology in China mainland has been in a steady development phase where it has always been a challenging task to innovate and develop new ideas. (2) Articles on landscape ecology research in China mainland were published in ecology, agriculture, resources and environment, geographical mapping and architecture journals. There are no specialized journals on landscape ecology in China mainland, and the relative journals have different impact factors. (3) In terms of the number of published papers, the major research institutions for landscape ecology were the Chinese Academy of Sciences, such as the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences and the Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology; Peking University; Beijing Forestry University; and Beijing Normal University. They carried out comprehensive studies on landscape ecology by integrating geographical concerns with their own subject characteristics. (4) There were different research priorities at different periods of time; and three Chinese landscape ecology research areas were identified by key words analysis. These were landscape ecology discipline and technology research, the interaction mechanisms between landscape pattern, ecological processes, and scale, and the application of landscape ecology to different areas. Landscape ecology in China mainland included urban areas, agriculture, wetlands, gardens, climate change, biodiversity, and landscape sustainability, etc. The research paradigm for landscape ecology evolved from a “pattern-process-scale” to “pattern-process-service-sustainability”. (5) When the number and citation frequencies of articles included in Web of Science database were taken into account, China mainland’s international status in the field of landscape ecology has improved significantly since the 1990s. The total number of articles from China mainland was ranked 5th in the world. Although China mainland’s landscape ecology research contribution was an important part of international landscape ecology research, the article citation frequencies were low and its international influence may need to improve. The reference searching methods used in this study had serious limitations, and it was difficult to collect all the landscape ecology articles published by the scientists from China mainland. However, the 20th birthday of IALE-China is an appropriate time to review the progress made by the scientists over the last 35 years in the area of landscape ecology.